Kesko Food and UPM to test electronic price displays in Helsinki

Page Content

UPM - Kesko Food - March 8, 2005

Kesko Food which operates in the grocery trade and UPM, a forest products company, are testing electronic price display systems at K-Citymarket Malmi in Helsinki, Finland. About 150 electronic price labels of different size have been installed in the food department of the hypermarket. This is the first pilot in Finland that is based on paper-like display technology.

Electronic price labels enable the updating of product prices on-line from the checkout system. Prices on the label and in the checkout system are therefore always identical and there are no extra delays in the price updates. Electronic price displays are tested at K-Citymarket Malmi for the products whose prices change fast, such as fruit, vegetables and special offers.

The aim of the pilot is to test how electronic price display works in the store environment and how paper-like display technology suits for this purpose. With this pilot, the companies also want to gain experience and customer feedback on electronic price display.

"As Kesko Food keeps actively developing store operations, we also want to pilot new price display systems. The development of store concepts is based on customer needs and on the efficiency of the logistics chain, on the other hand. With electronic price labels we can ensure that the prices of products are the same on the display and in the store checkout system. Thanks to the new technology, staff will save more time for customer service", says Timo Heimo, Development Manager of Kesko Food.

The price displays tested by the K-Citymarket have been supplied by UPM New Ventures. Globally, electronic price displays are already to some extent in use, but this is one of the very first pilots based on electronic paper technology. The advantages of paper-like display technology introduced by UPM are the readability of displays and cost-efficiency.

"For several years, UPM has actively monitored the progress in paper-like display technologies and studied opportunities for building new business around this. We believe that paper-like labels will significantly speed up the introduction of electronic price displays in the store environment, for instance," says Jukka Enarvi who is responsible for the project at UPM New Ventures.